


Emerald Scales

by Jenny_Vastra



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29848068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenny_Vastra/pseuds/Jenny_Vastra
Summary: Life was grey. Just grey, and black, and white. At least for Jenny Flint.Since she was a little girl, she couldn’t see colours. Colourblind, people called it. Most of her friends and the people she spent time with thought her behaviour was weird, not being able to see the world properly.A little Soulmate AU OneShot!
Relationships: Jenny Flint & Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint/Madame Vastra
Kudos: 14





	Emerald Scales

Life was grey. Just grey, and black, and white. At least for Jenny Flint.  
Since she was a little girl, she couldn’t see colours. Colourblind, people called it. Most of her friends and the people she spent time with thought her behaviour was weird, not being able to see the world properly.  
“You know, something’s not right with you… You’re what, 15? You should be able to see colours by now…”  
On the streets there had been a girl Jenny was rather fond of told her after she’d met her lover, her whole world changed, and it was so much more colourful now. It had broken young Jenny’s heart a little, this girl had stolen her first kiss…  
Something had to be wrong with her, Jenny thought, because all the people around her always talked about colours while she could only see light grey, and darker grey. She didn’t even know what those “colours” were like, how could she have known? If someone had shown her a card in a certain colour and told her it were blue, Jenny would have to believe it. For her, it was only another tone of grey added to the endless collection of similar yet different shades she had seen.  
“You just have to find your soulmate, then you’ll be able to see like a normal person…”  
“Maybe you’re just all alone, Jenny.”  
“Weirdo.”  
All of those were things Jenny had been told more than once, and as everyone around her seemed to have that opinion, that she should be able to see colours just like everyone else, and no one took her seriously, she shut her mouth, stopped speaking about how she couldn’t see what the world apparently was.  
She became miserable, her world was just monochrome, and she didn’t know what she could do about it, if she could even do anything about that.  
Maybe those people were right, there was no one out there for her. She was deemed to be alone for the rest of her life.

In a especially cold night, Jenny was walking down the street to the matchstick factory, hoping she could find a sheltered place to spend the night without freezing to death. Her hands were as cold as ice, and they hurt with every move she made.  
The barely lit streets in front of her started to look blurry, and the sharp wind painted Jenny’s cheeks in a rosy colour, a colour she couldn’t see.  
“Jus’… A lill longer. ‘old on, Jenny Flint… Yer nearly a’ the factory entry…”  
She mumbled quietly and took slow steps in her destined direction. Only a little more…  
The grey light from the grey factory’s grey entry didn’t exactly invite anyone to stay, but perhaps she could pick a few locks and find a cosy room in which she wouldn’t die from the cold.  
Lost in thoughts, Jenny didn’t see either of the two silhouettes emerging from the nearly black shadows of an alleyway, not until one of them had grabbed her arm and pushed her against the icy brick wall.  
“Give us your money!”  
“I… I don’ ‘ave any…”  
Jenny told them truthfully, her teeth chattering from the cold. She compressed her lips and hoped those two men greedy for money would leave her alone.  
The second man, however, got a knife out and held it close to Jenny’s face, pressed it against her cheek. She could feel the cold blade, forced herself to remain as calm as possible.  
“I… Don’ ‘ave any money… Please… T’s cold… I… I’m jus’ lookin’ for a place to sleep…”  
“A place to sleep, hu? We could offer you a place to sleep…”  
One of the men offered with a smug grin, and he inched closer. Jenny closed her eyes and let out a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Often enough she had been in a situation like this, more often than she would like to think about it. So far, nothing had ever happened to her, nothing serious, at least. A few bruises, a broken bone, such sorts of stuff. Jenny could deal with that. But being forced into being an object of pleasure for a man? That was utterly humiliating, Jenny imagined, and her whole body tensed up, hurting even more in the violent cold.  
“What do you say, luv? Come with us, we only want a little reward in return…”  
“No…”  
Jenny hesitantly stumbled, but then she repeated it, more confident this time.  
“No.”  
“What?”  
“You can’t just say… ‘No’, dear… Now come on!”  
The blade was pressed against her cheek harder, and Jenny could feel it cutting through her skin. Blood ran out of the cut and over her cheek. Warm blood that immediately became cold as the air hit it. Grey blood, Jenny thought for a moment.  
“Come!”  
The man holding her arm ordered and pulled her away from the wall, completely ignoring her struggling.

Suddenly, something flung through the air and the man behind Jenny with the knife in his hand fell to the ground. A second fling and the guy holding Jenny’s arm joined his accomplice. Slowly Jenny turned around, surprised she had been saved by someone.  
And as she turned around, her eyes widened and her mouth opened in awe.  
Green. Beautiful green, covering the face of a beautiful woman. It was a wonderful colour, Jenny’s first colour. It was so intense, so lively, and it put a smile on the young woman’s lips.  
“Go home, little ape… Or you will freeze to death…”  
The voice of her saviour reached her ears, and Jenny took a step back at how soft her voice sounded, and how much concern lay in it. Her heart jumped a little, and she gulped.  
“Wot’s yer name?”  
Jenny whispered and stepped closer carefully, her eyes fixed on the beautiful green in the woman’s face. Those were scales, she noticed as she got closer.  
“I am Madame Vastra. And you, little ape, should get back home. It is late, dangerous, and cold.”  
“Can’t…”  
Vastra tilted her head to one side and raised an eye ridge.  
“You… Can’t?”  
“I don’ ‘ave a ‘ome, ma’am… I…”  
She lifted her hand to the lizard’s face but froze mid-air. She couldn’t just go around touching stranger’s faces just because she liked the colour of them…  
Colour. She could finally see colours, and the first colour she ever saw was this wonderful, unique green in the face of Madame Vastra.  
“I… I luv the colour of yer face, ma’am… T’s… Beau’iful…”  
Vastra let out a soft laugh and shook her head.  
“This is a compliment no ape has ever given me before… Say, little ape…”  
“Why ya callin’ me that? I got a name, too, ya know… ‘m Jenny Flint…”  
Jenny pouted, but her expression quickly changed back to her admiring those green scales in front of her.  
“Alright then, Jenny Flint... What do you mean, you do not have a home? Don’t your ape brothers and sisters take care of you?”  
“Me brother an’ sister ain’t ‘ere… ‘m on me own…”  
Jenny admitted and let out a sigh. Her hand was still resting in mid-air, unsure if she could just touch those scales shimmering in a thousand different shades of green, and some even a yellowish green.  
“Would you like to spend the night in my house? I am sure I have a spare room, I live alone, after all…”  
Vastra had noticed the human’s hand held in a position she had barely ever seen with apes, mostly they did that when they wanted to touch something but weren’t quite sure, but then they touched it anyway.  
“Is there something wrong with your hand, Jenny Flint?”  
“Uh… No! I… Jus’… Never… Never seen anythin’ like yer face…”  
“Doesn’t surprise me… I am the only one of my kind…”  
Vastra replied, her voice not just as soft as before. She took a small step back, and the human’s hand immediately reached for hers. Vastra’s eyes went wide in surprise, and her eyes met Jenny’s.  
“I din’t mean it like that! Jus’… Colours… Ev’ryone was always talkin’ ‘bout ‘em… An’… Yer face… T’s beau’iful! So many… diff’rent shades of green! Can’t even count ‘em!”  
The enthusiasm of the young human made Vastra chuckle, but the cold concerned her.  
“My carriage isn’t far from here. Come.”  
“Wot?”  
Vastra turned back around to face Jenny, and gave her another soft smile.  
“You can stay with me.”  
Jenny’s eyes went wide, and she searched for any sign of sarcasm in the woman’s face, but couldn’t find any.  
“Yer mean… I… Stay… Wif yer?”  
“Yes. Now come on, it is cold.”  
Vastra mumbled and started walking towards her carriage, slowly. Jenny quietly followed after her with an expression as if she thought she was dreaming.  
This beautiful woman with the green face just invited her to stay with her, without even knowing Jenny. Jenny who was dressed in filthy clothes, who was smelling from living on the streets, who still had blood on one of her cheeks.  
Quietly Vastra handed her a handkerchief and pointed at her hurt cheek.  
“Please wipe the blood away. I will take care of the wound at home…”  
Home…  
Jenny entered the cab with a smile.  
“Driver, back to Paternoster Row!”  
Jenny’s brown eyes rested on Vastra’s face, and a soft smile lay on her cold lips.  
Green.  
Green was the first colour Jenny had ever seen. Emerald green scales in the face of the woman who saved her.  
Soulmate.  
This woman had saved her without asking any questions, and now she took her in.  
Jenny glanced down. A gloved hand was resting on top of hers, and as she looked back up, the lizard woman’s eyes gazed at her so lovingly, Jenny’s whole body suddenly felt warm.  
“We are going home…”  
Vastra whispered and she gently squeezed Jenny’s hand.  
Home.


End file.
